7 December 2008

Post Me_New ID Forum

This was the International media art festival CYNETart_08 held in Dresden, Germany. It hosted the forum “Post Me_New ID” from 31st October to 2nd November 2008.

Post Me_New ID examines the complexity of 21st century European identity through an exploration based on the effect of digital technologies of the body and identity.

Post Me_New ID practically explores the physical and digital social networking of creation processes for interdisciplinary artistic projects and envisions the artistic outputs of generations to come.

This project is a driver for a learning exchange and knowledge transfer in a diverse group of skilled experts. It brings together artists, curators, academics, psychologists, creative technologists and new media producers working in a value chain of shared expertise - from process to product and to the public.

The forum is planned as a platform for reflection on how we are creatively and socially engaged in digital networks, how we perform our online and offline identities, how we have become plural and variable post human bodies.

Post Me_New ID is a co-production between body>data>space (London, UK), CIANT | International Centre for Art and New Technologies (Prague, Czech Republic), TMA | Trans-Media-Academy Hellerau (Dresden, Germany) and Kibla (Maribor, Slovenia) supported by the European Union within the Culture 2007 Programme.

“We are asking ourselves >what is next?< applying the to-be-presented theories to our own cultural/art creating and networking practices”… says Ghislaine Boddington (United Kingdom), one of the forum organisers.My Involvement in the FestivalI attended this forum with body>data>space, as a dance artist and project co-ordinator. I met some extremely fascinating people within the arts industry and found this a very valuable networking event for my future career in dance.

In the festival I was approached by Mika Satomi (Austria) to replace an ill performer for her piece called 'The Perfect Human.' The performance was inspired by Jorgen Leth's 1967 short film "The Perfect Human" and Lars von Trier's "The Five Obstructions" (2003). See below.

Joergen Leths Film

The performance was created for public spaces, using a motion-capture costume and portable radios. The technology within the costume established my role as an interpreter, mapping statements to my bodily expressions. These statements I created through the suit were then translated into spoken words, broad casted and played back through the surrounding radios in the space. The entire performance is built on improvisation and playing with the suit.

The intention of the piece is to create a sixth obstruction, by introducing the rule of performance and the rule of non-linear narration.

There is a marked space on the floor to encourage audience members to join in and explore the system of the motion capturing suit by mirroring the performer, allowing them to perform the role of the perfect human.